8 Replies - 6433 Views - Last Post: 09 October 2013 - 11:11 PM

SteamOS

I knew something was coming down the pipe, but a full blown (free distributed) OS? Well shucks!

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Steam is coming to a new operating system

As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the
environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself.
SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen.
It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.

Not a whole lot of specifics, but this might be a new change for media center PCs floating around under cabinets and so on.

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In-home Streaming

You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine,

Music, TV, Movies

We’re working with many of the media services you know and love

Family Sharing

In the past, sharing Steam games with your family members was hard. Now you can share the games you love with the people you love. Family Sharing allows you to take turns playing one another’s games while earning your own Steam achievements and saving your individual game progress to the Steam cloud.

Family Options

The living-room is family territory. That’s great, but you don’t want to see your parents’ games in your library.

Re: SteamOS

Posted 23 September 2013 - 11:11 AM

Sounds good if you can both Windows games on it as well.

I don't think this is going to make gaming on Linux any better though. The current problem is that no games developers want to make games for that platform. I doubt this new OS is going to change that if it plays Windows games as well.

Re: SteamOS

Posted 24 September 2013 - 06:09 AM

From what here now this really isn't at all what I thought it was the first time around.

I may have totally misunderstood again but I believe the idea is that you'd have a SteamBox running SteamOS in your living room attached to your TV. By itself it's just a streaming device like a Roku or something. The big deal is that you'll be able to stream Steam games from your PC/Mac/Linux desktop somewhere else in your house so that you can play it one your TV.

This makes a lot more sense now for Windows games. The SteamOS isn't actually running the games at all, it's just streaming them from an actual Windows box somewhere else in your house.

Re: SteamOS

Well.. after reading this then.. well.. I don't know. What's the issue with just keeping the Steam 'big picture' mode? What's the bennies of having a re-branded OS?

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For Steam's 545 controller-supporting titles that don't run on Linux, you'll have to rely on SteamOS' support for "in-home streaming." This supports the full library of Steam games streaming from a second computer running a different OS

Re: SteamOS

While these products are still in development, we need your help. As always, we believe the best way to ensure that the right products are getting made is to let people try them out and then make changes as we go. We have designed a high-performance prototype that’s optimized for gaming, for the living room, and for Steam. Of course, it’s also completely upgradable and open.

This year we’re shipping just 300 of these boxes to Steam users, free of charge, for testing. You can make yourself eligible to get one. How? Read on!

Re: SteamOS

Well.. after reading this then.. well.. I don't know. What's the issue with just keeping the Steam 'big picture' mode? What's the bennies of having a re-branded OS?

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For Steam's 545 controller-supporting titles that don't run on Linux, you'll have to rely on SteamOS' support for "in-home streaming." This supports the full library of Steam games streaming from a second computer running a different OS

I think I read it too on Ars that Gabe didn't like Windows 8 at all and that it'll lose some OEMs. I think it was due to Microsoft integrating it's own store into the OS that bypassed Steam for the sale of some games and some other reason I can't remember. They already have Left for Dead 2 running on Linux, so I'm assuming other games can be made to run on Linux as well. I really haven't messed around with 'big picture' mode much, but personally I like the way the Steam client lays out my library of games more. I can see which games I have installed and quickly see any achievements or news on the game. Valve’s Newell: Windows 8 “catastrophe” driving Valve to embrace Linux